One Way To Live
by Jazzy446
Summary: Bella Swan lives a tough life, homeless and robbing for money. When she comes across a nice family willing to offer her aid, she discovers they aren't so normal after all. Is she willing to accept their past in order to get the true love she desires?
1. Preface

The sky was black, clouded without the sun in sight. The lampposts shined brightly, creating a light glimmer along the street. I had my hand held firmly on the gun. I had to use it. I was Bella Swan, this is what I did. It was my only way for survival. To rob and… kill.


	2. Chapter 1

I put my black hood up on my leather jacket and put on my fingerless gloves. Nothing was going to stop me tonight, I was starving, and I hadn't eaten for days. This raid was crucial. I stalked along the path and followed the faint light the lamppost was portraying. Every so often I would check for people around me, but as far as I could see, there was no one there, not that I could see much in this darkness anyway. I approached my "target" and pulled my mask on, this was a cheap joint so it didn't have any CCTV cameras. Chucky's Chips was just another money-scheming, rip off of everywhere else place, filled with snotty teenagers who weren't smart enough to get a better job and thought it would all be plain sailing after high school. But hey, at least they had a home to go to. I focused myself and opened the door to Chucky's Chips, which rang a bell as I entered.

"Hello, may I-," and then the poor kid cut off as he really looked at me, he must have been about sixteen, but right now he looked like a six year old.

"Empty the till," I barked roughly, while raising my gun.

He just stood there, with his hands trembling and his mouth open. I didn't have time for this.

"Empty the damn till!" I shouted again.

This time he took out the cash from the till and handed it to me, his hands fumbling as he tried to close the till again. I snatched the money and began to walk away, when I heard a mousy voice from behind me.

"Why…why do you do this?" He asked, probably regretting his words after he said them.

"Because I have to," I said in a solemn voice, and I walked out of the shop without looking back.


	3. Chapter 2

Idiot Guy. Making me feel bad. Why should I feel bad? He's the one with the home and he gets fluffy slippers at night. Well maybe not, but still! Well he could get fluffy slippers if he was gay…. aghh! I need sleep. Huh, that grass over there looks pretty comfy, yep before I collapse, I'm going to sleep there. So I'll just sleep here… in the cold…. With the night sky as my best friend…. As usual. Ugh, that kid gave me such a downer. Man, I hate that kid. Right, sleep Bella, sleep. Just close your eyes and sleep.

**Edwards P.O.V**.

"Alice I think we should give up on this chess game," I said, neither of us was going to win anyway; we were both just too good. Well both too good at seeing the future and reading minds.

"Fine, I think we have a visitor anyway," She said pointing behind me at the window, towards our back garden.

In the middle of our garden, a girl was lying there, out cold. Was she drunk? In a fight? She didn't look it. I better get Carlisle.

"Carlisle…umm… well there's a girl lying in the middle of our back garden," I said, trying to make it sound as normal as possible. For us, I guess that kind of did count as normal. It beats killing our enemy vampires.

" What!? I'll have a look," Carlisle said, in a business like tone.

I followed him out to the garden and then it hit me in a huge burst. My throat was burning with a mighty fire. It was her scent. It killed. It was the most beautiful thing I had smelt in all my days, and yet so painful as I was a vegetarian. The girl was small, and looked around 17. She had brown hair with soft curls, glowing skin and was wearing almost all black, with worn out red converse. Oh how my throat ached. She was just as beautiful as her scent. I would just have to resist it. I would not change my ways, even for the sweetest meal.

"She seems fine to me," Carlisle said, checking her pulse. " But I wonder why she is lying here"

" I have no idea, but she is killing me every second"

" Come on, control yourself Edward."

The girl slowly twitched in her sleep and rolled over, she opened her eyelids to reveal the most beautiful brown eyes. Oh I wanted her so bad, but she was forbidden fruit. The only apple on the tree I couldn't have. Suddenly she said, " Who the hell are you! Get away from me! I have a gun," And she raised her gun, scared to death I bet. Even though she was willing to kill us on the spot right now, I still couldn't help feeling some desperation to stick around. I was becoming obsessed. Oh no, this forbidden fruit.

**Bellas P.O.V.**

Why the heck were these guys harassing me! I didn't do anything wrong! Well not to them anyway. I quickly looked around and realised – oh, stupid, stupid, stupid me – I had slept write in their back garden. Right I'll just have to hold my own. If worst comes to worst, I'll have to fire.

"Look just calm down, we don't want to hurt you," The man with the blonde hair and strange pale skin said.

"Yes, just stop and think look-" and the teenage boy with the reddish hair and once again, pale skin reached out to me. That was all it took for me to fire. I pulled the trigger and the bullet seemed to take forever to get to him, even though he was so close. Everything was moving in slow motion, as he flicked the bullet away with his bare hand! He FLICKED the bullet away! This was unbelievable! I…I… this was not natural! I slowly put away my gun; I didn't want to risk anything with these guys.

"Ah, I see we have a bit of explaining to do,"

And he was damn right. I wanted answers.


	4. Chapter 3

"So let me get this straight," I said astonished, "you guys are VAMPIRES?"

"Yes, sorry dear, I know it must be a shock," The woman, well vampire, called Esme said.

"So why haven't you eaten me or "sucked my blood" or whatever, and how come that dude, Edward, flicked away a bullet!?" As I cast my eyes toward Edward to give him a glare, I realised he was sitting there looking frustrated, and giving me puzzled looks." What's your problem?" I said, sticking up for myself.

"Carlisle, I can't read her mind, this doesn't make any sense," Edward said.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, you can read MINDS?" This conversation was getting weirder by the second.

"Well, some of us, have special gifts, and I can read minds, but not yours"

"I can see the future and Jasper can change what people are feeling, and make them feel a certain emotion" Alice chirped in, surprisingly cheery.

"He better not toy with my emotions! And if you can see the future, why didn't you see me coming?"

" Well you were already here when you decided to lie in our garden, so I didn't have a vision because you were basically already in the garden for us to see."

"Does anyone else know, well, what you guys are?"

" No, and we cant let you tell anyone, please keep it a secret," Carlisle said.

"How are we meant to trust her? She's a stupid human and she slept in our back garden. We never should have helped her in the first place," Rosalie said. I didn't like her. Bitter idiot.

"Look, I wont tell anyone, as long as you trusted me enough to let me know, that's ok"

"So anyway, I think we should be getting you home. What's your address?" Carlisle said.

"Ahh, well, you see, I don't have a home. I live on the street." I said, if they could be honest with me, I could be honest with them.

"That explains why you were in our back garden then, so what happened?"

" I don't want to bore you with the details, I better be going, I-," and then Esme stopped me with her hand, man it was cold, but hey they are vampires.

"Please tell us honey, you don't need to be afraid. We want to help you," Esme said

"Fine," I sighed " Well it all started when my mum died in a car accident, a few years ago, we all took it real hard, especially since my mum and dads marriage had just got back to going great. My dad, well he tried to go on, but it was just too much, he committed suicide and overdosed on drugs." I felt a tear rolling down my face but wiped it away before it could reach my cheek," they tried to take me to the adoption agency, but before they arrived at my house, I took what I could and left, I've been on the run ever since. I've done things I'm not proud of, but hey, that's my life."

"That's awful," Alice said, and hugged me, and I couldn't help but notice her holding her breath.

" I had no idea, I thought you were just some selfish kid, but you're not," Edward said quietly, " I know what its like to lose a parent," He said sorrowfully, as he put his arm around me.

"Man! You guys are cold!" I said, breaking the silence. Everybody smiled, and I finally felt like I had a family again." So, um guys sorry to end the party but I have to go, I have to find somewhere to sleep tonight"

"Yes well…Carlisle and I have been thinking that you should stay with us, we've barely known you an hour and you already feel like family, and we think everyone is handling you very well, even Jasper!"

"Oh no, no way, you could not be serious! I, whoa, oh my dear lord, you guys are the best!," And without thinking I grabbed them all into a hug. Well all apart from Rosalie of course " I finally have a home, a place for fluffy slippers." They all gave me a strange look ( and Rosalie gave me a glare), then we all laughed and began hugging again. But I couldn't help wondering, what was the catch to this ideal life with vampires?


	5. Chapter 4

My eyes widened in horror as I saw Alice walking in with 5 shopping bags.

"Alice," I groaned " Why are you doing this to me?"

"Well we all knew you needed knew clothes, so I helped you out! And they are just amazing! I got you the cutest lit-," I cut her off

"Stop right there, let me have a look at these bad boys," and I snatched the bags from her. I peeked in and my mouth fell open, " Oh my gosh! I love it!" I hugged her," These are the coolest clothes ever!" It was skulls, reds,purples,blacks, it was awesome!

"You're welcome." Alice smiled proudly.

"I'm not normally one to get excited about fashion, but I have to put on this outfit right now!" I ran up the stairs and put on the red tank top with a black skull on it, along with skinny jeans and some sneakers." Tada" I said, as I walked in to where I thought Alice would be, but it was Edward, much to my embarrassment. I felt my cheeks burning," Oh hi Edward, um sorry,"

"Don't be, you look beautiful," He said in his musical voice. This made me go even

redder.

"Thanks," I hid a small smile. I mean if anyone should be described as gorgeous it's him, he's beautiful and intelligent and mysterious, and he thinks I'm beautiful!

" Are you afraid, Bella?"

"Of what?" I asked, puzzled.

"Of me, of what I am"

"Of course not, I know you would never hurt me, I trust you"

"But I'm a monster, I could kill you at any second. I want you so bad"

" Yeah you could, but you won't, and how could you want me, I'm just a stupid girl, and you, well," I cut off and blushed," I gotta go show my outfit to Alice"

"Oh ok then, see you later Bella," He said, sounding kind of disappointed.

I walked out of the room to see Alice standing there, actually ignoring my outfit for once, with a suspicious look on her face, but she also looked pleased.

"What are you so happy about?"

"Oh just well, you know," She said slowly," My brother finding you and now you are the love of each others lives and now you're both so happy and oh I just can't believe it!" She blurted.

"Hold on, what the hell are you on about?"

"Oh you'll see," Then Alice left the room and Edward silently walked in.

"Love of my life, eh?" He said with a crooked smile.

"I guess so," I replied, I couldn't resist.

"That sounds wonderful to me," He remarked

" Oh, does it now? I'm glad I have your approval," I replied. Then he totally caught me off guard by pressing his lips against mine. They were like velvet and it felt nice, I found my lips moving in turn with his and I soon forgot everything. When we finally released each other, as much as we didn't want to, we were both panting, and I was utterly speechless/

"See you later, love of my life," Edward winked.

"See you," I replied breathless, and about 10 seconds too late. Then I knew, I had fallen in love with Edward Cullen.


	6. Chapter 5

I was sitting in the kitchen eating my breakfast when a thought occurred to me. Why didn't we go out? I mean I hadn't been out since I'd moved in with the Cullens. Plus, now I could actually enjoy the outdoors. "Hey guys," I called as the others entered," Do you guys ever, like, hang out?

"What do you mean dear?" Esme asked.

"Well, could we go to the beach or something?"

"The beach sounds like a great idea! We haven't had a proper family outing in ages! Let's get packed. It's perfect weather today," Carlisle said excitedly.

"Um…Carlisle, it looks like it's about to rain"

"Exactly! Perfect weather!"

So we packed towels, buckets and spades, all the traditional stuff, and I felt like I was a kid again. Everyone was really excited [even Rosalie] to go to the beach; it was their first time in centuries. So when we arrived sat the beach, in our denim shorts, despite the weather, we all ran in the sand like there was no tomorrow. The day felt endless and the truth was, I didn't want it to. Edward and I chased each other in the water, Esme and Carlisle built sand castles, Rosalie and Emmet just ran about laughing all over the beach, while Alice and Jasper played catch with a beach ball. It was bliss. I went over to help build a sandcastle when a mischievous look came across their faces, all at the exact same moment. Then they all grabbed my arms and legs, and started to carry me towards the water.

"No, get off me, no!" I screamed, but their grip was firm. Suddenly they all stopped dead in their tracks and looked to the left. A male and a female stood there, but even from here you could tell they were vampires. They both had pale white skin and were beautiful. They both had red eyes. That couldn't be good. The female vampire had fiery red hair and was wearing fur. The male had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and wore a tattered jacket. The Cullens put me back down and took a protective stance in front of me. I've never seen Edward look so fierce. He had pure hatred in his eyes.

"Sorry, when we hear a human screaming, we get interested," The female said slyly. A growl erupted from Edwards throat.

"So, do you care to share your meal?" The male asked.

"She's not a meal," Edward hissed.

"Oh, that's too bad. That's really too bad. Oh well, James and I better be off then. It's obvious your land is still claimed," and then they walked away.

"Who are they? What's going on?" I asked desperately, as I was practically dragged to the car by Edward.

"They're James and Victoria. We've ran into them before. They aren't vegetarian like us. We have to go home now and figure something out," He said furiously.

"But it's OK, they said they were leaving"

"No they're not. James is a tracker. He will do anything to find you and kill you," I winced," I read his mind, he has no intention of giving you up."

"Well, what are you gonna do?" I can't let you guys get hurt 'cause of me"

"Bella," Edward took my face in his hands," We aren't the ones you should be worrying about."

We arrived at the house and all rushed into the living room." Right, we all love Bella and we are going to protect her. We need Bella's room guarded at all times and a permanent watch for James and Victoria. Got it?" Carlisle said.

"But what if it's not enough? I can't lose Bella," Edward asked sorrowfully.

"It will be, son,"

***

Later that night, I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep, but I just couldn't. I had too many things running through my head. And I knew Edward was also there, watching anxiously.

"Bella, are you awake?" Edward whispered softly.

"Yes, I can't sleep a wink," I groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm starving. Could you go down and get me a snack please?"

"Fine, but I'll only be gone for two seconds. Don't worry"

But apparently two seconds was all he needed. As soon as Edward left, a dark figure entered my room, and clasped a hand over my mouth, even before I could find the strength to scream. And so James dragged me out of my bedroom and into the night sky, and I waved goodbye to my life. Leaving without a whisper.


End file.
